Usability First

conversion

dlo — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:09:48 +0000

on a website or web application, a conversion is any action taken by a user that satisfies the website owner’s business goals. Common examples include signing up for an email newsletter, making a purchase, or viewing an important web page.

counterbalancing

dlo — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:18:36 +0000

A technique in experimental design that is used to avoid the introduction of confounding variables. In usability testing, this technique is most commonly used when establishing task order.

For example, a website user test might ask participants to complete two tasks: 1. find the sitemap, 2. sign up for the email newsletter.

If the study’s 12 participants complete these tasks in the same order each time, a researcher who observes high success rates on task #2 may falsely conclude that finding the email newsletter is easier than it really is. The reality may be that success rates on task #2 were artificially inflated because participants had already learned important things about the website as they completed task #1.

Counterbalancing the task order by having 6 participants begin with task #1 and 6 participants begin with task #2 removes this potential confound.

beveled appearance

jls — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:21:14 +0000

the bevel is the bright or dark edge used on raised or lowered objects in a user interface to give them a 3-dimensional appearance. This pseudo-3d style is quite popular: by giving buttons a raised appearance, they appear to be pressable. Bright edges are usually on the top-left and dark edges on the bottom-right, consistent with a top-left light source.

chrome

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:01:56 +0000

a visual style for user interfaces that presents widgets as beveled 3-dimensional objects, usually with a gray, metallic appearance. In this style, buttons are presented as raised rectangles, text-entry fields and other content areas usually appear in beveled insets, and bumps and parallel ridges are often used to indicate that something is draggable.

Also, the “chrome” of an interface refers to the area of the interface taken up by controls, as opposed to the content area of the interface.

user needs analysis

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:45:18 +0000

uncovering the goals a user has and the capabilities needed from a technology to assist the user in meeting those goals. This involves understanding the target audience, their typical tasks, and their specific constraints, usually through a combination of observational techniques, including interviews, surveys, artifact analysis, and consulting with domain experts. The results provide user interface objectives, system requirements, and feature requirements.

information visualization

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:20:42 +0000

the study of how to effectively present information visually. Much of the work in this field focuses on creating innovative graphical displays for complicated datasets, such as census results, scientific data, and databases. An example problem would be deciding how to display the pages on a website or the files on a hard disk. Visualization techniques include selective hiding of data, layering data, taking advantage of 3-dimensional space, using scaling techniques to provide more space for more important information (e.g. fisheye views), and taking advantage of psychological principles of layout, such as proximity, alignment, and shared visual properties (e.g. color).

information scent

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:16:33 +0000

or information residue; cues (“scent”) used in an information display that help people locate and navigate to relevant information.

For instance, the label “bugs” provides a hint that the content it labels contains information about insects or possibly software bugs (and thus, it has ambiguous scent). It does not suggest information about cars or nuclear physics, so no one is likely to seek information about those topics under that label.

information retrieval

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:11:11 +0000

the field of study that examines how people find information and how tools can be constructed (such as search engines and catalogs) to help people find information. Studies examine how the organization of information affects its retrieval, the types of searches people do, the kinds of search queries people can make effectively, and what determines the relevance of retrieved information.

information race

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:06:42 +0000

a method of measuring optimal task times in an application by having 2 expert users compete to complete the task as fast as possible.

information processing model

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:04:13 +0000

in cognitive psychology, the idea of breaking down human behavior into 3 primary systems: perception, cognition, and motor control (action). These systems are similar to the computer’s input, processing, and output. Cognition, in this model, can do hidden mental processing (as opposed to the prevailing behaviorist approach before cognitive psychology came around) and can be measured and studied as an information processing system.

information overload

jls — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:01:29 +0000

a state of having too much information, such that a person is overwhelmed. When information is available in enormous quantities (as on the web) and not clearly structured, people have difficulty finding relevant information and grasping important principles embedded in the information. Under such circumstances, various techniques for organizing the information or helping people navigate within the information space include information visualization, information filtering, and principles such as “focus + context”.

information foraging

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:57:11 +0000

a theory of people’s information-consumption behavior, where people are viewed as foraging for information like animals foraging for food. People tend to stay in one place (e.g. on one website) and exhaust the supply of information before moving on. This satisfies a cost/risk tradeoff because moving on to another location may not provide additional useful information. People also refine their goals based on what they find, so you can’t treat information-seeking as having a steady target.

As a result of these considerations, information should be designed to help people determine if they’ve exhausted the supply of information (e.g. by clearly indicating the scope of a website) and should provide opportunities for serendipitous discovery.

information filtering

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:55:26 +0000

selecting subsets of information to deliver to the user, based on user preferences, relevance of the information, and past information usage. Information filtering is quite similar to the information retrieval field, except that information is viewed as being sent to a passive user (through a broadcast medium) rather than being actively sought after by the user. Information filters may operate on a publishers/broadcasters behalf or on a user’s behalf as an intelligent agent. A key consideration is to help the user avoid information overload. The key problem, shared with the information retrieval community, is determining the relevance or importance of a given chunk of information.

information efficiency

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:53:04 +0000

the minimum amount of information the computer needs from the user divided by the amount of information the specific user interface requires from the user, with values ranging from 0 to 1. A good interface has an efficiency close to 1, and an interface that forces the user to perform tasks for no reason has an efficiency of 0 (zero).

information design

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:50:56 +0000

a broad term for the design tasks of deciding how to structure, select, and present information (inclusive of information architecture, information visualization, and information retrieval).

information architecture

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:46:28 +0000

the organization of information; the field which studies how to organize information most effectively to help people find and use the information. For instance, how should websites be organized? What is the best way to design website navigation? How should pages be labeled and identified?

information appliance

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:38:51 +0000

a device for accessing or manipulating information, special-purpose in contrast to a general-purpose computer. The idea is a machine with computing power but designed and used like other consumer electronics, such as stereos, TVs, and toasters. It serves a limited function, enabling it to have a simplified user interface and to fit its intended task more perfectly than a general-purpose machine.

information anxiety

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:36:10 +0000

stress caused by the inability to access or understand the information you need, caused by information overload, lack of clear organization to information, insufficient information, excessively difficult presentation of information, etc.

industrial design

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:33:49 +0000

the field that designs physical artifacts such as consumer electronics (TVs, VCRs, stereos), toys, computers, and appliances. Industrial design focuses on the physical form and interactive properties as opposed to the electronic functioning of the system. In computer design, in addition to a concern for appearance and ergonomic form, industrial designers are concerned with such things as how the computer is manufactured and assembled, how heat is dissipated, how robust the system is during transportation, and how much space it takes up.

individualization

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:30:02 +0000

modifying a system to suit the needs and preferences of a single individual user.

individual differences

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:22:58 +0000

people vary in a number of ways that can have an impact on the design of a user interface, and rather than trying to design for “the average user”, it is often better to understand how people vary to design acceptably for a broad audience. Sometimes this may even mean designing separate user interfaces for different user populations, such as when extremely simplified drawing programs are made for young children versus sophisticated versions designed for graphic design professionals.

Some of the main categories of variations that are of interest to designers are:

user experience level – how well users know their subject domain, computing skills, internet skills, …
user preferences – users will choose settings according to their own tastes and work practices
market segment – such as age, gender, education, occupation, hobby, and income level
variation in ability – users often have relevant physical or cognitive limitations; for instance, near-sightedness and color blindness are extremely common, and these can usually be easily addressed when a designer is aware of the issues

indirect user

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:18:24 +0000

someone who does not actually use a product but who is directly affected by the product’s usability. For instance, a telemarketer or customer service agent may work with software while interacting with a customer, and the customer would be an indirect user, affected by the use of the application.

indicator

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:12:21 +0000

something that displays information without being able to directly modify it, especially a type of widget that displays status information. Examples include gauges and progress indicators.

indication

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:09:36 +0000

showing what item would be selected if the user were to click. Analogous to hiliting the current selection, indication highlights as the user mouses over items, helping the user to accurately make selections.

incremental search

jls — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:07:19 +0000

a search that progressively finds a match for the search string as each character is typed, as opposed to a delimited search.